Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation

Contemporary Korean and Thai both have a number of forms that denote the future-time reference. The grammatical statuses of these forms are widely variable in terms of their morphosyntax, and thus, there exists some debate about whether some of them can be regarded as future tense markers. By...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Seongha Rhee, Kultida Khammee
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2024
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/1/Gema%20Online_24_3_1.pdf
_version_ 1848816143199895552
author Seongha Rhee,
Kultida Khammee,
author_facet Seongha Rhee,
Kultida Khammee,
author_sort Seongha Rhee,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Contemporary Korean and Thai both have a number of forms that denote the future-time reference. The grammatical statuses of these forms are widely variable in terms of their morphosyntax, and thus, there exists some debate about whether some of them can be regarded as future tense markers. By virtue of the dynamic, panchronic nature of grammaticalization theory, there is an advantage in viewing the change, both holistically and microscopically, from the historical source lexeme, if available, to the grammatical forms and functions in the contemporary states of the languages. An investigation into the grammaticalization patterns of the broadly defined future-time references in the two languages reveals a number of interesting features. Future-time references in the two languages developed from very different lexical sources, e.g., TEMPORAL POSTERIORITY and MODE in Korean as compared with KNOWLEDGE and TEMPORAL PROXIMITY, as well as contextually inferred IMMINENT REALIZATION in Thai. The two languages also exhibit idiosyncrasies reflecting typological features, e.g., argument omissibility and agglutination in Korean and strong pragmatic orientation, verb serialization, and preference for polylexemic units in lexicalization and grammaticalization in Thai. Despite the differences in conceptual sources and developmental paths, Korean and Thai show commonalities in the modal functions of the future-time reference markers, which lends support to the thesis that these modal notions are strongly connected to the notion of futurity across languages. Also notable is that in Thai, reinforcement is often observed, supposedly for boosting perceptual salience and conceptual strengthening in grammaticalization.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T01:01:11Z
format Article
id oai:generic.eprints.org:24627
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T01:01:11Z
publishDate 2024
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:246272025-01-02T02:48:51Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/ Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation Seongha Rhee, Kultida Khammee, Contemporary Korean and Thai both have a number of forms that denote the future-time reference. The grammatical statuses of these forms are widely variable in terms of their morphosyntax, and thus, there exists some debate about whether some of them can be regarded as future tense markers. By virtue of the dynamic, panchronic nature of grammaticalization theory, there is an advantage in viewing the change, both holistically and microscopically, from the historical source lexeme, if available, to the grammatical forms and functions in the contemporary states of the languages. An investigation into the grammaticalization patterns of the broadly defined future-time references in the two languages reveals a number of interesting features. Future-time references in the two languages developed from very different lexical sources, e.g., TEMPORAL POSTERIORITY and MODE in Korean as compared with KNOWLEDGE and TEMPORAL PROXIMITY, as well as contextually inferred IMMINENT REALIZATION in Thai. The two languages also exhibit idiosyncrasies reflecting typological features, e.g., argument omissibility and agglutination in Korean and strong pragmatic orientation, verb serialization, and preference for polylexemic units in lexicalization and grammaticalization in Thai. Despite the differences in conceptual sources and developmental paths, Korean and Thai show commonalities in the modal functions of the future-time reference markers, which lends support to the thesis that these modal notions are strongly connected to the notion of futurity across languages. Also notable is that in Thai, reinforcement is often observed, supposedly for boosting perceptual salience and conceptual strengthening in grammaticalization. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2024 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/1/Gema%20Online_24_3_1.pdf Seongha Rhee, and Kultida Khammee, (2024) Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 24 (3). pp. 1-19. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1733
spellingShingle Seongha Rhee,
Kultida Khammee,
Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title_full Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title_fullStr Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title_full_unstemmed Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title_short Grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in Korean and Thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
title_sort grammaticalization of future-time reference markers in korean and thai: a focus on morphosyntax and conceptual motivation
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/24627/1/Gema%20Online_24_3_1.pdf